Essays and Essayists

Unlike the general databases, literature (or any subject) specific databases generally focus solely on journal articles as a publication type and do not have a broad, multidisciplinary approach.

General databases contain content from a variety of subject areas as well as a number of different publication types. They will allow you to look at your topic from a wide perspective.

Be sure to use the search refinements each database may offer, including: date, document type, and source type.

Here are some tips for better search results in databases.

This usage works on most databases, but check 'Help' sections for supported search syntax.

Boolean: (using operators: and, or, not)

• mother AND father searches for occurrences of both words within scope defined.
• mother OR father searches for one or all, but both are not required.
• mother NOT father searches for occurrences of the word ‘mother’ without use of the word ‘father.’
• (mother NOT father) AND god searches for occurrences of the word ‘mother’ without use of the word ‘father,’ then also requires the word ‘god.’

Truncation:

art* (asterisk as truncation character) searches for art, arts, artistic, artful, etc.

Wildcard:

m?n (question mark as wildcard character) searches for man and men.